Negan's One True Love
by Annabel Lee 1849
Summary: Negan meets the one woman who he can't have, and his emotions might cost him everything. And in the end, even after he gives her everything, she may fall in love with someone else.
1. Chapter 1

There was a rule in Negan's community, one that even he followed. The woman had to say yes. Now Negan still counted a 'yes' that came under duress, that was how he got most of his wives. He'd threaten a family member, a lover, a close friend. The women never said no to him.

He met her by accident. At first he thought that she must be naive, to come traipsing up to their group on the road without a hint of fear. Later he found out that she simply didn't care about her own safety anymore. They were stopped on the side of the road. One of the guy's driving a truck had been complaining of chest pain. He was now sitting on the ground next to the truck, clutching his chest. Negan was about to get back into the truck and leave him there when he saw a beautiful woman walking towards them from the woods.

"Well, well, well," Negan said with a grin, "And what's your name beautiful?"

She glanced over at him like he was nothing, "Seriously? You're a scumbag." She didn't even stop walking as she said it. Negan's grin grew wider. He liked the fiery ones. He followed her over to the guy who was on the ground. She took her backpack off, kneeled in front of the man, and pulled out a bottle of aspirin.

"I'm sorry," she told the man, "it's all I have, but it might help."

He looked up at her, "Thank you."

"When did the pain start?"

"About ten minutes ago."

"Ever have anything like this before?"

The man swallowed nervously and shook his head, "Are you a doctor?"

"Yes. Well, I was. My name's Toni." Finally she looked back up at Negan, who was leaning against the truck next to her. "There's a hospital about five miles from here. There are walkers, but I think you guys have enough manpower for us to get in there."

Negan kept on grinning and shrugged, "Ok." It was something that he would normally have said no to, but he was hoping to find out a little more about this woman. He needed to find some leverage if he was going to make her his wife. "Do you have a group? They can come with us."

She looked a little suspicious, answered slowly, "No, it's just me."

"How long have you-"

"Listen, we can chat later, your friend needs to get to a hospital. Help me get him in the truck. Is there room for him to lay down in the back?"

Negan nodded, "Sure thing." Negan grabbed the man roughly by the arm and Toni grabbed the other arm. Negan was surprised when she managed to hoist the overweight man from the ground with only a little help from Negan. He smiled to himself, thinking that he may have found his favorite wife. They got him in the back.

"What's your name?" she asked the man once they had him settled. She climbed into the back with him.

"Andy."

"Well, Andy, we're gonna get you to a hospital and see what we can do, ok?"

"You can ride up front," Negan said, though it sounded like he was giving her an order rather than an option.

"He shouldn't be alone."

Negan shrugged again, "Just tell us how to get to the hospital."

"Get onto the highway and take exit 6, then make a right."

Negan nodded and walked back to the front of the truck.

When they got to the hospital they had to kill a small herd of walkers, but Toni was right, they had plenty of manpower to get the job done. When Negan walked to the back of the truck, he saw that she had started CPR. "Go get a stretcher from inside."

"If he's dead, we'll just leave him and be on our way."

"I can bring him back, we just need to get him inside."

Negan told two of his men to get a stretcher and watched as she did CPR. She was really beautiful. She could easily have been a model instead of a doctor. She had dark blond hair and beautiful green eyes. She was about average height, but more toned than most. It looked like she must still exercise, even with the world as it was.

"Did you ever model?" Negan said with a grin.

"Actually, yeah. That's how I put myself through medical school," she continued to work.

"You put yourself through medical school? No help from the folks, huh?"

"Listen," she said harshly, "We can all get to know each other later, it's not the time for twenty questions."

Negan put up both hands in defeat, "Whatever you say darlin'."

The men came back out with the stretcher and all of the men with him had to help to get the heavy man onto it. Toni kneeled on the side and continued CPR.

"Get us inside, and somebody find a crash cart. It's a bunch of drawers on wheels." For the next several minutes, she barked orders at people, started an IV, injected drugs, and shocked the man twice. He finally awoke with a start. Negan clapped, still with that grin on his face.

"Bravo, doc. Now we need to talk." He grabbed her by the upper arm in an attempt to lead her away, but she quickly pulled out of his grasp and continued to work on her patient.

"Still not the time, asshole."

Negan chuckled, "No, it's the time." Two of his men grabbed her and pushed her down the hall.


	2. Chapter 2

Negan chuckled, "No, it's the time." Two of his men grabbed her and pushed her down the hall. She rolled her eyes and shook them off.

"I can walk guys, thanks."

One of the men handed Negan his baseball bat, then they both walked out of earshot, but still close enough to see if they were needed.

"So, no family around?" Negan swung the bat around a little as he talked.

"Already told you I'm alone." She folded her arms across her chest and seemed genuinely indifferent to the situation.

"Alright, well we've got a place with plenty of food. You can have anything you want."

"Right now, what I want is to make sure that man doesn't die."

Negan stopped for a moment, then grinned again. "He'll be fine. As I was saying, you can have anything you want, all you have to do is be my wife."

She laughed, like it was the most hysterical thing she'd ever heard. Negan leaned on his bat and waited for her to stop laughing. Time to change tactics.

"You know, it would be a shame if you never made it out of here…"

To Negan's surprise, she just shrugged, totally indifferent again, "It wouldn't really. I'm just roaming around out there anyway."

Negan was thrown for a loop. Bribery and threats weren't getting him anywhere.

"So is this what you do? Threaten women and then rape them?"

Negan shook his head, "All of my wives said yes."

She raised an eyebrow, "But under duress. None of them actually _wanted_ to be with you, right? See, that's still rape."

The grin finally fell from Negan's face. "I don't rape women." He took a threatening step forward, but she held her ground, still appearing totally unimpressed by the situation.

"Yeah you do." Negan saw a small smirk grace her lips. Was she actually trying to anger him? Then Negan realized something; this woman wanted to die, at least on some level. He took a breath to calm himself and took a step back, so that they were a normal distance apart again.

"Ok, so, no family, don't care if you die, don't want to live in luxury… But there has to be something that you want."

She thought for a minute, then smiled a little.

"Well, I'm not a prostitute, and I'm not sleeping with you for anything, but maybe we can agree to something."

"What do you have in mind sweetheart?"

"We can have a date once a week, no sex involved. Maybe you'll grow on me, who knows."

This was a ridiculous deal. Negan knew that he should take her back and lock her up until she agreed to be his wife, but somehow he doubted that it would ever work on this woman. "And what do you want in return?"

"The hospital, and the people and resources to run it. And I want your men to bring me patients if they find anyone or if anyone else in your group gets sick."

Negan raised an eyebrow, "So basically you want to work?"

"I want there to be a point to this. Right now it makes no difference if I'm dead or alive; it used to."

Negan thought about it. He should say no. He knew it. But he couldn't. He nodded, "You got yourself a deal."

Her body language changed instantly. She uncrossed her arms, her face lit up, and she looked impossibly more beautiful. And in the pit of his stomach Negan knew he was screwed because he would never be able to say no to this woman. But when she held out a hand to shake on it, it took it in both of his hands and shook.


	3. Chapter 3

Negan showed up at the hospital six days later. He sat on the counter at the nurse's station as Toni was writing on a sheet of paper.

"So what do you want to do for our date tomorrow?"

She glanced up, but didn't answer him until she had finished writing. "The hospital's pretty well stocked, but here's a list of a few things we need. Electricity would also help out a lot." She handed him the list. Once he took it she smiled at him. "I need something to wear for tomorrow. How bad's the mall over on Baker Street?"

He smiled, happy to see that she actually cared about their date. In reality, Toni had decided that she probably had to play along with Negan at least a little bit to keep him happy.

"I'll send some people over to clear it."

"Hey, does your town have electricity by any chance?"

"We have a place nearby."

"Maybe we could get a movie somewhere. I haven't seen one in forever."

"Ok, why don't you pick one out at the mall?"

"Great, so I'll see you tomorrow."

A couple of hours later, a group of six men arrived from Negan's group to take Toni to the mall. She found a simple but sexy black dress to wear for their date, then they proceeded to the movie store. She decided on something funny, it seemed like it would be refreshing to see something light for a change. She also picked out two novels. When she got back to the hospital, there was a pile of food waiting for her. She neatly packed it into one of the patient rooms in the hospital. On her way out of the room, she grabbed a Reese's. She started to walk into the room next to it to lay down, but one of the men who were there to protect the hospital stopped her.

"Negan has set up a place for you through here." He opened a door to one of the bigger, two-person rooms. Toni was surprised to see an enormous king-sized bed, nicely made up with plenty of blankets and pillows. Everything that the hospital had originally had in the room was gone, making for a very roomy bedroom. There was a battery powered lamp on a nightstand next to the bed. There were two dressers, and when she opened them she discovered that they were both filled with clothes, underwear, pajamas, even various types of shoes. She remembered one of the few females in Negan's group had been asking her about why size she wore, claiming to have some clothes that she could borrow, but obviously that was just a rouse. There was a bookshelf that was mostly empty, but had a few photos that they must've found in her backpack, now framed. The two novels that she had gotten at the mall were also neatly stacked on the bookshelf, and the dress that she had picked out hung by the window. The window had a view of the hospital grounds, which now had a few walkers roaming around, but was beautiful nonetheless. As she walked in, the man closed the door behind her.

She stood in shock for a few moments, before changing into a pair of pajamas for the first time in several years. She grabbed one of her novels and got under the covers in bed. She had the best night sleep that she'd had in a long time.

The next day she woke up, got dressed, and walked into what was now the pantry in search of something to eat, but was stopped by someone clearing their throat behind her. She turned to see Negan sitting at a small table, with two places set. She saw that both plates were overflowing with eggs and bacon.

"Wow." She sat down across from Negan.

Negan grinned, "I decided to start our date off early."

Time to play this up, Toni decided. She reached across the table and took his hand.

"The room looks amazing. Thank you."

"I told you that you could have anything you want."

She giggled a little, "Yeah, I guess you did."

Negan smiled and picked up his fork, "Better start before the food gets cold."

They ate and chatted for almost an hour. Toni hated to admit it, but this guy was actually very charming when he wanted to be. She was surprised to find that she was enjoying herself.

"Hey, umm, any chance we can go take a walk outside?" Toni felt a bit uncomfortable asking, but they had twenty armed men there to protect them and it'd been a long time since she was able to just relax and enjoy being outdoors.

"Sure," Negan said happily. He pulled out her chair for her and took her hand. They walked around the hospital grounds until they reached a bench overlooking a pond. They sat and enjoyed the view for a few minutes. Then they saw a walker far in the distance walking toward them. One of Negan's men got it in the first shot.

"Wow," Toni said, "Nice shot." The man just nodded at her and went back to standing like a soldier behind them.

They spent most of the day together, and then it was time to get ready for the real date. Negan told her he would meet her there, kissed her on the cheek, and left. She got dressed, did her hair the best that she could with no electricity, and then was led to one of the trucks. Most of the men stayed back to protect the hospital, but there were still five men to escort her to the date. It was just starting to get dark when they pulled up to the Alexandria Safe Zone.


	4. Chapter 4

The gates to the Alexandria Safe Zone opened and they drove in. She looked around and saw that Negan had the place packed with armed men. The men who had brought her here acted like they were protecting the president as she walked down the road. There were a few unarmed people, maybe not Negan's. Some of them looked scared, others looked angry.

"What's going on?"

"This way."

The men directed her into one of the houses in the community. Negan was waiting at the door for her. He smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

"Welcome to Alexandria."

There was a man cooking, and a teenager with a bandaged eye and a sheriff's hat setting the table. Neither looked happy about it. Toni started to walk toward them. Negan kept a hand on her arm, pulling her back toward him, but she roughly pulled away.

"What's going on?" she asked the man. She saw him look at Negan, as if unsure if he should say anything. Toni turned around to Negan. "Well?"

He grinned, "Rick's just making dinner for us. Come sit down."

"What happened to your eye kid?"

"I was shot."

"By who?" she was sounding increasingly angry.

"Not by any of us. Got into an argument over a girl, right kid?"

"I was asking him."

Negan was getting tired of this. "Well, tell her kid."

"A kid from Alexandria shot me."

She turned back to Negan, "Why does everyone in this place looked pissed off?" she demanded.

"Listen," Negan said harshly, "We're here for a date. If you can't be pleasant then our deal is off."

She hesitated for a moment, but decided to let it go for now. Yelling at Negan wasn't going to help these people right now. If anything, it'd make him angry and put everyone in danger. Once Negan saw that she was complying with what he said, his grin returned and he pulled out a chair for her at the table. She sat down and sipped from the glass of water that was waiting for her.

"How 'bout some of that lemonade?" Negan asked Carl.

"Why don't we leave that for the kids?" Toni said before Carl could respond.

Negan looked at her for a moment, clearly not happy, but then grinned again, "Sure thing sweetheart. We'll find something else. You guys got any wine here Rick?"

"Yeah," Rick was now looking at Toni, trying to figure her out. Clearly she was being pressured into being here. He wondered if her 'deal' was just a threat to her loved ones, the same type of 'deal' Negan had made with the people of Alexandria. But she didn't seem afraid of him. Not in the slightest. Rick got a bottle of wine from under the counter and handed it to Carl, who poured it into their glasses.

Toni looked up at Carl, "Thank you."

Negan reached across the table and took her hand, "You look beautiful. So how about you tell me about yourself?"

"What do you want to know?" she sounded tired of the whole situation.

"What happened to your family?"

"It was just me and my daughter before all of this started. She was six when it started. I kept her safe for a couple of years, but kids don't last long out there."

"Her dad wasn't there to help?"

"I adopted her. It was just the two of us."

Negan nodded, "What about the rest of your family?"

"I wasn't in contact with them since I graduated high school. I don't know."

"Why not?"

She raised her eyebrow at him, "Getting a little too nosey there Negan."

He chuckled. "Ok, whatever you say sweetheart. Were you with a group at the beginning?"

"Yeah. For a little while. We had some differences of opinion, so I left."

"What differences?"

"Well, they started robbing people. Got a couple of people killed. I couldn't be a part of it."

"Hmm… but maybe if you'd stayed your kid would be alive."

She stared at him in shock and anger for a moment, before picking up her wine glass and throwing it at him. He moved to the left and the glass shattered on the wall behind him.

"This is over." She started to get up.

"No. It's not. Sit down."

"Screw you, the deal's off."

Toni heard a woman screaming and others yelling outside. She tried to go over to the window, but Negan quickly stood up and wrapped both arms around her to keep her from moving. She wasn't able to pull away from him this time, he was holding her too tightly. Instead, she turned around in his arms and slapped him as hard as she could in the face. He laughed, actually laughed.

"Isn't she somethin' Rick? Not taking shit from anyone." He grabbed her hand and kissed it. "It's ok darling, the guys will take care of whatever's going on out there."

"Let go of me."

"How about we sit down and finish our meal?"

"Let. Go. Of me."

She could see Rick behind Negan. He looked like he wanted to help her, but didn't. She didn't blame him; Negan might hurt him or his kid if he tried to defend her.

"Come on," he pulled her back over to her chair and helped her sit down, "I'm sorry I said that about your kid, I'm sure you did everything you could to protect her." The apology didn't seem very sincere, but she didn't know what to do except to nod her head and go back to eating. These people obviously weren't part of Negan's group, and she didn't want to bring any trouble down on them. She also finally had something that she cared about again with the hospital, and she really didn't want to lose it.

After a few minutes of eating in silence, she heard a baby crying. The teenager started to walk towards the crying, but Negan stopped him. "I got her."

Negan came back in carrying a baby. Rick and Carl both looked uncomfortable, like they wanted to stop him but couldn't. Toni decided to help them out a little by taking the baby from Negan. Negan smiled.

"Ever think about having kids?"

"It's the first date Negan," she said dismissively. He laughed.

"But eventually?"

"I don't know." She hummed to the baby and walked into the kitchen area. "You have any food for her?" she asked Rick.

"Yeah." He pulled out some cheerios and poured a few onto a plate. Toni smiled at him and took the plate in one hand while carrying the baby in the other. She sat at the table, pushed her plate back and replaced it with the baby's plate, then sat with the child on her lap and offered her a cheerio.

"What's her name?"

"Judith," the teenager said, sounding a bit angry. His father gave him a warning look.

"Hi Judith," she said in a sweet voice. Negan watched them.

"We could move here. We'd have electricity and running water," he said.

"I'm staying at the hospital."

"You haven't had a patient since Andy."

"Then bring me some. Apparently you're here bullying people. See if any of them need a doctor." She said harshly. Then something dawned on her and she turned to Rick.

"Actually, we have some vaccinations at the hospital if you want to vaccinate Judith."

Rick didn't seem opposed to the idea, but didn't have a chance to answer. "I'm sure he'd love to," Negan answered for him, "We'll bring them over to see you tomorrow."


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Toni woke up with the feeling that someone was watching her. She sat up in bed and jumped a little when she saw Negan standing there, baseball bat in hand.

"You didn't keep up your end of the deal."

"Yes I did."

"No, sweetheart. That was supposed to be a date, not a fight."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "I thought the point of the date was to win me over. Try not being an asshole next time."

Negan was looking frustrated, the stupid grin finally gone from his face. "If you can't be pleasant then our deal is off. Take a few minutes to think about it." And with that he walked out.

Toni wanted to break down, but that wasn't who she was. Instead, she got dressed, got some breakfast, and then got the vaccinations ready for Judith. When she heard a truck pulling up, she went outside to greet them. Rick was holding Judith, and Carl was standing next to them.

"Hi Rick," she said, then said in an overly sweet voice, "Hi Judith," she turned to Carl, "I never caught your name."

"It's Carl," the kid sounded angry. He walked past her into the hospital.

Rick gave her an apologetic look. Now that he was here it was clear that this woman didn't have the option of leaving. The men outside were probably to protect the hospital, but the seven or eight armed men inside were obviously there to watch her. She led the way into an exam room. One of the guards started to follow them in, but she stood in front of him, blocking his path.

"There's a thing called doctor patient confidentiality. Wait outside." the man looked unsure of what to do, until Negan called over that it was ok. Rick saw the woman tense for a split second. She hadn't known that Negan was around. She closed the door and talked quietly to Rick.

"What's the deal with these guys?"

"They killed two of our people. They're threatening to kill more if we don't give them half our stuff."

"They have one of our friends," Carl added.

"What's the friend's name?"

"Daryl," Rick answered.

Toni sighed, "Well I can't make any promises. I think I got on Negan's bad side last night. But I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," Rick sounded genuinely grateful. "Is he hurting you?"

"So far he hasn't. He wanted me to be one of his wives, but I said no. We made a deal that I could run the hospital if I went on a date with him once a week. That's what last night was. They weren't going to just let me leave, so this is probably better than whatever they would have done to me."

Rick nodded, "I understand."

She sighed, "Well, let me take a look at Judith here. Oh, Carl, has a doctor looked at your eye?"

"Yeah, there used to be a doctor at our place."

She nodded, "Good."

Toni weighed and measured Judith, listened to her with a stethoscope, and did an exam.

"Ok," she told Rick, "Everything looks good. Now, the hard part," she said, gesturing toward the shots.

She got Judith caught up with almost all of the usual vaccines. Judith finally calmed down after her shots, and Toni got something from one of the cabinets.

"I found this last night." She handed Judith a stuffed dog, which was somehow still in great condition. "Here you go sweetie."

Rick gently squeezed her arm, "Thank you."

She nodded, "Listen," she looked to both Carl and Rick, "We'll figure this out eventually, hang in there. I'll find out what I can about your friend."

Before Rick could respond, Negan was barging in, "You guys done plotting the rebellion?" he joked with a large grin. Then he looked at Toni, pointed the bat at her, "You and I still have to talk."

"Ok. Well, they're all set. So let's go talk," Toni led the way out of the room and down the hall. She was starting to realize that if she really wanted to help people, it was time to start manipulating Negan. But it couldn't appear too fake, the man wasn't stupid.

"Did you think about what I said sweetheart?"

"Yeah, I did. But you have to meet me halfway. You can't be out there murdering people."

He grinned and swung the baseball bat at the air, "Ah, Rick told you about that, huh? Well it doesn't change our deal."

"Our deal was that I would give you the chance to win me over. It's not my fault if you suck at it."

Negan chuckled, "You don't really know when it's time to shut up, do you?"

"Guess not. But unless you want to bash my head in with that," she gestured toward the bat, "You're just going to have to start treating people better. At least in front of me."

Negan grinned and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, "Whatever you say darling."

"Then I want the guy you took to work here."

Negan looked surprised for a moment. "Can't do that."

"Yes, you can. There are plenty of men here to watch him. I can't play nice with you when I know that you're torturing some guy."

Negan looked angry again, "You seem to think that you're calling the shots around here. You're not."

Toni shrugged, "Then I guess we have nothing else to talk about." She turned to walk away, only to be grabbed by Negan and pushed roughly into the wall. His had rested on her neck, gently, but the threat was still there. "You wanna see what we're doing to Daryl? Fine."

He dragged her out of the room and called down to one of his guys. "Put her with Daryl."


	6. Chapter 6

The way that these guys treated her suddenly changed. She was manhandled into a truck where her hands were tied behind her and she was blindfolded. After a long, bumpy ride, she was dragged out of the truck and dropped onto the ground.

"Get up," someone demanded, and then she was being pulled to her feet.

She heard a door open and they walked inside, then she heard it shut behind her. They walked down some steps, which she almost fell down because no one bothered to tell her that they were there. When they stopped her hands were untied. The men began removing her clothing. She yelled and fought, and it took several pairs of hands to hold her still. She feared that Negan had finally decided not to wait for a 'yes' from her, but instead, she was pushed into a room, the blindfold was yanked off, and a door slammed shut behind her. She looked around and jumped when she saw a man sitting on the floor to her right. She tried to cover herself up. The man didn't say anything, but he removed the shirt from the sweat suit he was dressed in and handed it to her. She put it on and was happy to find that it was long enough to cover everything.

"Are you Daryl?"

The man looked surprised, but nodded.

"Rick told me you were here."

"You seen Rick? Is he ok?"

"Physically, yeah, but these psychos seem like they're trying to get under his skin."

"What about the kids?"

"I just saw them about an hour ago. They're both fine."

Daryl nodded, "And Maggie?"

Toni shook her head, "I only met Rick and his kids. What are they going to do to us?"

"I dunno. I been stuck in here for a while. They been feeding me dog food and playing some horrible song, but not much else."

"Ok," Toni took a breath, feeling at least a little bit relieved. "My name's Toni, by the way."

"Why you in here?"

"Negan didn't like how our 'date' went," she replied, using air quotes.

Daryl eyed her, "Did he hurt you?"

"No. After I talked to Rick, I told him I wanted you to come work at the hospital I was running. He said if I wanted to see what they were doing to you he'd show me."

Daryl ran a hand down his face.

"It's ok," Toni quickly told him, "We'll get out of here soon."

Daryl didn't respond, so she walked over and kneeled in front of him. She put a hand up to his face, "Seriously. We'll figure something out."

"They got too many men."

"We'll find a way. Negan's bullied everyone he's ever met; I'm sure he's made some enemies along the way."

Daryl only nodded. Toni sat up against the wall next to him. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Find anything to pass the time in here?"

Daryl looked at her like she was crazy, "No."

"Well we gotta find something to do. People go crazy in situations like this."

Daryl shrugged.

"Why don't you tell me about yourself then?" Toni suggested.

"Not much to tell," he mumbled.

She smiled at him, "How long have you known Rick?"

"Been with him since the beginning."

"Any family?"

"I _had_ a brother." He said, but didn't elaborate.

"You don't talk much, huh?"

Daryl shrugged.

"Then I'll talk," she said with a smile. She didn't want to sit in here staring at these four walls for days on end… or maybe longer. "I'm from the midwest, originally. I came to the east coast when I was fourteen, travelled up and down it for a little while, then went to college and medical school. I got my first job around here and I've been here ever since."

Before she could continue, the door swung open and Negan was looming over them. He looked at both of them, then let out a hearty laugh. "Damn, Daryl! You've been locked up here for weeks, we throw a naked woman in here and nothing? I'm starting to wonder about you man." Even though it was supposed to be a joke, Toni still felt violated.

"Go to hell Negan," she said, not bothering to get up from the ground.

Negan smiled at her, "Ok darlin', you can stay here as long as you need," he looked at Daryl now, "She's off-limits, so don't get any ideas." He closed the door and they could hear him whistling as he walked away.


End file.
